Of course, VBAM already has a strong roleplaying element or inspiration with the concept of a CM running the campaign with multiple players. In general, the basic form would be a CM with multiple players who each have their own goals, which effectively created a 'refereed' wargame.

I'm sure others have thought of this, but what about using VBAM for a 'dynamic campaign universe' for a more standard Role Playing Game. "Traveller" or GURPS comes to mind, as does another RPG I like called "Thousand Suns" (which shares a similar feeling design ethic as the VBAM games).

The characters could, of course, take any role in the Campaign World, be given missions by the CM. While much of the universe would be controlled by the various CM, the characters would directly affect one element (an intelligence mission, a fleet battle, exploration, whatever).

A really ambitious CM could do the thing online, with multiple layers of players (political/military leaders who determine the direction of their empire, intelligence operatives on missions, fleet captains who participate in the battles, etc). Or perhaps a structure where there are 'Assistant CMs' who run the individual adventures, and then report the results back to the overall Campaign CM who would incorporate the results into the next game turn, send the updates to the Assistant CMs who could then work with their players to determine their actions in the next turn.

Just a thought...

Edit: Of course, I just now discovered that the "Jovian Chronicles" does pretty much just what I described above, though admittedly at a 'smaller' scale.

That thought has come up before from various quarters. It always has that "oooo, really cool idea" patina about it, but it would be a *lot* of work to pull off.

Probably the most "practical" way to go about such a thing would be start your RPG campaign in the midst of an on-going VBAM campaign. That way you would have already established your setting and the major players to provide the backdrop to the RPG. Since VBAM is resolved on a monthly basis, it would be some background work on the GM's part to advance the clock in the VBAM campaign when dictated by the flow of events in the RPG campaign, possibily generating news items and missions for the next month of the RPG.